Gordon
Gordon is a big blue express engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother. Gordon is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor and his main task is to pull the "Wild Nor' Wester", the railway's express train. At times, this leads to him feeling superior. Biography Gordon was built at Doncaster in 1922 as an experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Inevitably there were faults which needed correction; so Gordon was kept "hush hush" and, apart from test runs, was never put into regular traffic or given a GNR number. He was used experimentally until all defects had been cured and the first batch of Pacifics had appeared in 1922/23. In 1923 therefore Gordon was no longer needed and was sold to the NWR together with a spare boiler and firebox. Gordon has been through a lot of adventures in the Thomas & Friends Railway Series and the Thomas & Fiends TV Series with all of his engine and human friends. These are the adventures that Gordon has been in, The Great Trackmaster Adventures of Thomas & Friends . Gordon was there when Alex came to Sodor. Later Gordon raced the green car that came to Sodor. When Gordon and James heard about the St Patrick's Day Party he thought that it was silly that the green engines have a holiday to celeabrate the green engines.. Personality Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. He is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. He also has a great hate of goods trains. Sometimes, Gordon acts as a bully to other engines, particularly towards Edward sometimes, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable. He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learned his lesson and apologised to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him old or unreliable anymore. Despite the way he treats Edward sometimes, deep down, Gordon is shown to care a great deal about Edward and many other engines that work with him. Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though. Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is sometimes quite often. Technical Details Basis Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 - the '/1' indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class. Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic, he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender. Livery Gordon is painted in NWR sky blue with red and yellow lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in GNR apple green with white and black lining. Appearances Tomy/Trackmaster T&F= |-|The Adventures of Trackmaster T&F= Trivia Category:Tender Engines Category:Steam Locomotives Category:Thomas & Friends Characters Category:Male Characters